According to flightglobal.com,

“US defence chiefs raise alarm on cost of three F-35 variants

BY: STEPHEN TRIMBLE WASHINGTON DC 2 hours ago Source:

The new chairman of the joint chiefs of staff has raised concerns about the cost of building three variants of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II.

“I am concerned about the three variants and whether we can go forward in this fiscal environment with all three, but I am eager to learn more about that,” said General Martin Dempsey, speaking at a House Armed Services Committee hearing on 13 October.

“Three variants create some fiscal challenges for us,” he added………”

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/us-defence-chiefs-raise-alarm-on-cost-of-three-f-35-variants-363414/

If one of the variants gets a bullet in the back of the head it’ll most certainly be the ‘B’ variant…

…In that case Italy and Spain better come up with a plan B (no pun intended) rather soon…

What a mess….

I wonder why they offered Taurus instead of SCALP ? when there exists a range limited version of the same.

Both will have been proposed, its just a matter of which suites their requirements the most.

I’m wondering more why they’re offering Mica. Sure its a fine A/A missile & the Indians will/have them on their Mirages but…Meteor, its by far the better A/A missile in BVR regimes & it would suite the IAF’s needs way more than other BVR missiles available. Captor-E/Repositioner + Meteor + ASRAAM, I don’t think even the mighty PAK-FA/FGFA could have something similar to those capabilities.

UK held secret briefing for India on missiles in Libyan war

Interesting…

What weapons are planned for the Typhoon, again?…

it seems that this is card Dassault is playing in india

Britian could play that game, too. But probably won’t mean much from sides…

Westland Wapiti
Westland Lysander
de Havilland Dragonfly
de Havilland Devon
de Havilland Tiger Moth
de Havilland Vampire
Percival Prentice
English Electric Canberra
Folland Gnat
Hawker Hunter
Hawker Tempest
Hawker Sea Hawk
BAE Hawk
Hawker Siddeley HS 748
Jaguar
Sea Harrier
Eurofighter Typhoon (TBC)

“Proud Partner Of The Indian Armed Forces”…

Lockheed Martin Selects BAE Systems to Supply F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Helmet Display Solution
Is this kicking Vision Systems off the team?

This is a similar sort of thing to the BAE Systems HMSS for the Typhoon, isn’t it not?

It would appear so, yes. Bernhard Gerwert and Enzo Casolini officially made it quite clear and going by what they said they seem to want to make it perfectly clear that the likes of offsets, ToT and especially strategic benefits, as well as political benefits too I might add, are a high priority.

If you look at both bids with regards to the likes of these, offsets etc, a representitive (Executive Chairman) from Dassault officially stated that; “request for tender including offsets which were “very tough,” where as a representetive (CEO) from EADS stated that; “Off-sets are not an obstacle for us. Our will to invest in India is high and the off-set factor is not a big constraint.” It’s, well…Speaks volumes.

EADS/Eurofighter GmbH want this a lot and they’re showing a shed load of commitment and have already commited a lot already regarding Indians working on Eurofighter systems for example. Concerning EADS alone, they’ve more or less stated that they have a post in Europe, the US and now they want India & it looks as though they would offer so much more to get a post up in this country.

“After the bids are opened, the Defence Ministry will be able to determine the lowest bidder in the deal. In the MMRCA deal, foreign vendors bagging deals will have to invest back 50 per cent of the worth of the deal in Indian defence industry. This means the winning firm has to reinvest more than Rs 21000 crore in India, either alone or in partnership with an Indian company, in military, homeland security and civil aviation.”

***

“However it is understood that the procurement policy has a provision that allows MoD to discard L1 lowest cost bidder for ‘strategic benefit’ that the next highest bidder offers.”

http://machinist.in/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3807&Itemid=2

Well, well, well…

Interesting…

If 40 of the aircraft are to be twin seat trainers then why shouldn’t initial 18 be? They could easily purchase them and still train Indian pilots in the winne’s countries. India wants the remaining aircraft to be produced in India by Indian technicians but they sent their “first” few to Cassidian’s Manching site in Germany to train on “Eurofighter related” systems…There would be a lot of co-operating going on which is what this deal is all about really, isn’t it.

2015…Thought so.

Earlier in his address to the air warriors, Browne said: “The process for acquisition of the MMRCA (Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft) is in its last lap and we should be able to open the bids in 10 days’ time from now.”

However, explaining the complexities involved in finalising the winner, the IAF chief said that after opening of the commercial bids, “complex calculations” would be done in a tabular format of the entire life-cycle cost, the acquisition cost and the technology transfer.

“It may take two to three weeks to calculate these,” he added. EADS Cassidian has offered its Eurofighter Typhoon and Dassault its Rafale to the IAF, which is looking at inducting these aircraft from the beginning of 2015.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/IAF-to-seal-10-4bn-mega-combat-plane-deal-in-Nov/articleshow/10283529.cms